1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method suitable for an encoding apparatus coding image data delivered by digital terrestrial broadcast, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is widely known an image processing apparatus encoding broadcast program contents delivered by digital terrestrial broadcast and storing the broadcast program contents in a hard disk or an optical disk. Examples of the image processing apparatus include a hard disk recorder or a Blu-ray Disc (registered trademark) recorder.
In the digital terrestrial broadcast, the broadcast program contents viewed by viewers and information (hereinafter, referred to as EPG information) regarding the broadcast program contents are delivered. The EPG information contains the details or keywords of the broadcast program contents, a broadcast schedule, and genre information regarding the genre of the broadcast program contents.
There is known an image processing apparatus capable of again storing the stored broadcast program contents not reproduced for a certain period at a higher compression ratio (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-10603). In this image processing apparatus, a compression ratio and time of increasing the compression ratio are configured to be selected depending on the genre information.
The genre information is classified in accordance with the details of the broadcast program contents. In some cases, the characteristics of image data may change depending on the details of the broadcast program contents. For this reason, it is considered that the image processing apparatus can make effective use of the genre information when encoding the image data.
It is desired to provide an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of improving an image quality.